Coming of Age-Girl with the Pearl Earring Essay

Bildungsroman is a German term used to describe novel which focus on the protagonist’s transition from childhood to maturity. (Bildung= education; Roman= novel). Change is unexpected to occur especially in a very young age. However in the novel, the Girl with a Pearl Earring written by Tracy Chevalier presents Griet, the protagonist experiencing circumstances and changes that would demonstrate her transition of childhood to adulthood.
Griet was enjoying her simple, yet meaningful life even though their family is undergoing some difficulty. Until one day she was told and forced to serve as a maid for Vermeer so that their family could sustain their living. Now she is expected to enter a different world which accumulates changes in her life. She is now leaving her childhood memories and now forced to act maturely along with her new responsibilities. According to Chevalier “I had walked the streets all my life, but had never been so aware that back was my home” (11). That was the time when she starts to absorb everything that her life would not be exactly the same as it was before and that there is no more way of getting out, she was stuck in a scenario that would change her entire life.
Griet's self exploration spans many states; artistically, emotionally, morally religiously as she emerges to a more complex and mature character. At first she was not sure of how to react to changes primarily about the new environment, the job that has been given to her. Not only that she also has to learn to balance herself with the way she acts toward her own family members and her obligations “I have two families now, and they must not mix” (Chevalier 53). Being young undergoing through a lot of changes was hard. She had no one to talk to regarding her emotions by that she learned to keep her thoughts to herself and started to lie. Back then before she arrived as a maid Griet had a strong relationship with her parents, but as soon as she started working for Vermeer her...